Re: Nightline Tonight

I've just read TF's Statement in response to Jesus Freaks. The cliche, the more things change the more they stay the same, has never been truer. Family leadership is still up to their old tricks.

For example, in their past prolonged demonization of Mene, Family leaders and spokespersons continually pointed to her mental health problems, calling her insane, without ever acknowledging the direct role Family leaders had in causing and exacerbating her problems. Likewise, they have done the same thing in their past statements about Ricky and now in this latest statement, where they refer to him as a "clearly unstable young man". Gee, I wonder why that was? They do not accept any responsibility for how he turned out, even though he was raised exclusively by the top leadership and their inner circle. I guess they only apply the scripture, "wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them" when it suits them, kind of like cafeteria Christians.

They also single out Don Irwin as one of the former members Don Lattin interviewed. Why? Because apparently he also "has a history of mental illness." They use this point as supporting their position that former members are not credible whereas current ones are. So they take two people who committed crimes while mentally unstable due to direct cult influences to argue that, therefore, all of Lattin's interviewees are not credible. Family leadership is blind to the fact that they are the true "mad dogs" barking up the wrong tree.

What's next? Will they claim that all former members who have anything negative to say about TF are mentally ill.

And as usual, they blame "a handful of apostates with a clearly delineated agenda to demonize the Family" Huh? A delineated agenda? Gimme a break. The only agenda I'm aware of is to expose the truth about TFs teachings and practices. And last I checked there are a lot more than just a handful of former members doing that. And "demonize the Family" is the pot calling the kettle black. It is TF that has demonized former members, literally calling us demons, as in Vandari. Furthermore, they don't seem to see their hypocrisy in objecting to "the stereotyping that Lattin resorts to" even while they stereotype former members.

One of the practices many are trying to expose is TF's claims of doing charitable work. This is a sensitive issue for TF. Why else would they bother to address this issue in their Statement? The fraudulent nature of much of their charitable work is not just the "... malicious rumors of disaffected former members." I think many former members can attest to the fact that TF's "charitable" work is usually nothing more superficial photo-opportunities. For example, in Hong Kong we used to give outdated bakery products (after picking out the best stuff for ourselves), which we had received free, to a Vietnamese refugee camp there and then used that to promote the idea that we were doing charitable work in refugee camps. Classic deceivers yet true. And more recently, there were those photos of Family members standing under the Red Cross banners during Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. They deliberately tried to give the impression they were involved with the Red Cross in charity work, when the reality was that they were just there to take spiritual advantage of people in the midst of crisis.

In the video of Claire Borowik from a couple years ago defending TF, she was clearly lying to her interviewer. It was most obvious when she was asked if she knew where Zerby is. As a Family leader and spokesperson, she will say anything to defend TF, as this latest Statement shows.